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Druids of Krell


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Druids of Krell

Mac/Windows

 

Author: Ephesos

Difficulty: 20-30

Version: 3.1.0

 

[composite=eyJ0aXRsZSI6IkRydWlkcyBvZiBLcmVsbCIsInRpZCI6IjEyMzAxIiwidGFncyI6WyJhdmVybnVtIHVuaXZlcnNlIiwibGluZWFyIiwic2hvcnQiXSwiYmdhc3AiOnsiNSI6MCwiNCI6MTIsIjMiOjIsIjIiOjAsIjEiOjB9fQ==]

Composite Score: 3.9/5.0

 

Best: 0.00% (0/14)

Good: 85.71% (12/14)

Average: 14.29% (2/14)

Substandard: 0.00% (0/14)

Poor: 0.00% (0/14)

[encouragenecro]

 

[/composite]

 

Keywords: Avernum Universe, Linear, Short

Edited by SylaeBot
Automated Sybot edit; worker IPB::csrThread/vanadium
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  • 4 weeks later...

The outdoors and towns look really pretty with the trees and all. I especially liked the town in the massive tree. I couldn't find any bugs with the version I was playing which, for the record, was one of the early version. I think the dragon was still Klortis (or something).

 

The combat wasn't all that interesting and personally I didn't like how Ephesos handled the showdown with Kharpev.

 

 

Like in Lord Putidus I don't get to kill the baddie, but unlike LP I didn't really feel like I wanted to anyway. The dragon really was just a background entity.

 

 

Plot wasn't all that intriguing for me. For one thing it seems that when things finally start happening the scenario ends. Curse you sequel hook! Another thing, there is a valley of druids not in the Empire's iron grip? How did they pull that one off? Order of the Flame (the enemy) felt stupid from day one. There's something about a horde of vicious lizards that got me thinking: Huh? I mean, were they controlled by the dragon or are they just naturally intelligent?

 

Oakleaf was nice enough although I don't get how the other druids think so little of him. The villain is a crazy dragon (or is it a drake lord?). What is it with crazy dragons? There's the one in Bahssikava and now this? Dialogue was nicely written, although I would have hoped more pointless random talk with locals... I always do.

 

Druids of Krell is definitely worth a look. I just hope the sequel Ephesos is going on about does not include the fantastic rise of Kharpev the dragon. Actually, I hope he would just make the sequel; or maybe the story works better this way.

 

Rating: [rating]GOOD[/rating]

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  • 4 months later...

(Ported from SV)

 

Visually, its still one of the most beautiful scenarios we have. The outdoors (especially the area around the Sacntuary) is almost perfect. The tree-top town is just superb. The graphic choices were inspired, especially considering it was a first attempt.

 

The plot is well-presented, if a little weak in places. The progression seemed a bit off, as well. The "linear, but not really" style should be, in my opinion, removed. You can't have a linear scenario if you then let people wander around and do things out of order. At least without beating them about the head for being wrong. tongueold.gif

 

The end "fight" was probably the worst part. Just standing around as the cinematics go off? Mmm... and this, coming from me. But this was only meant to be a prequel, and I look forward to Ephesos fleshing out this world some more, and showing us all up in terms of town design once again.

 

And yes, eEven though newer things have taken it's crown of prettiest BoA scenario, play it. You won't be disappointed.

 

Score [rating]GOOD[/rating]

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Aesthetically innovative. I suppose I found the final sections unimpressive, but wouldn't be a letdown after the treetop area? (Perhaps Eph was rushed to make the contest deadline--I'd empathize.)

 

None of the combat was really remarkable, and the rewards were pretty generous. Still, that only makes it an easy scenario. Nikki's right about the final fight--it's even easier than the others, and it's very anticlimactic.

 

The plot, I guess, is pretty basic. There are no obvious holes, and the party actually does some stuff. The characterizations are pretty basic, and the author is transparently self-inserted as a god character--and that, my friends, is simply unacceptable.

 

I dunno. It flows reasonably well, it's pretty, and it doesn't get particularly stale. [rating]GOOD[/rating]

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  • 1 month later...

A bit forced... But still a decent scenario. It had perhaps the best customized graphics for BoA yet, and it is pretty well coded. And the designer only included himself as a prisoner, not the Uber-Ultra Lord of All Universes:p

 

The story was interesting, as well. Some parts were pretty enjoyable. Sometimes it can be a little unclear what to do next.

 

I found the fights in this scenario to be a bit easy. (Okay, I played with a level 26 party, but he DID say 20-30, and I usually go somewhere around the middle.) But maybe the monsters need to be a bit more powerful, or the scenario should be rated lower in terms of difficulty.

 

The scenario seems to be a bit forced. You are just controlled by cutscenes, and get to make no choices. I also didn't like having to take damage repeatedly from the dragon. I don't find it a "challenge" to have to keep taking damage without any way to stop it, I find that just "annoying." I would have liked it better if I could just fight the dragon, instead of take damage and watch the Priests kill it.

 

I have to say though, even though it WAS forced, I liked the cutscene of Oakleaf rescuing Ephesos

 

Overall, worth a look, but not great. More gameplay and choices would have made it much better.

 

I rate this scenario [rating]Average[/rating].

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  • 1 month later...

Good:

Graphics: everything looked nice, especially the fire fortress

 

Storyline: everything flowed except for one part- see below

 

 

Bad:

Plot: why is the dragon attacking? What's in it for him? I was under the impression that dragons were supposed to be at least semi-intelligent, not just blood-crazy monsters.

 

Combat: fairly dull, first you kill lizard after lizard, then you heal for 10 turns. You win!

 

 

Weird:

Why do lizards need barracks? tongueold.gif

 

 

Overall: [rating]Average[/rating]

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  • 1 year later...

From VCH on the CSR:

 

A truly excellent scenario. I liked every aspect of the plot and game play. The plot towards the end plays as if your party was actually on an adventure not just randomly searching rooms for treasure. The cut scenes only serve to enhance the overall feel. Though nothing technically new is used in the scenario, many common elements are taken to a higher level. The use of hight for the Dragon platform was especially pleasing. BOA displays heights reasonably well why other people haven't taped into this feature is a mystery.

 

The outdoors were extremely well put together, the Valley seemed like a place people might actually live. Druids of Krell, is a very linear story the party is placed on a path that they must follow or leave the scenario.

 

Combat is not overly prevalent there are several large lizard battles. But overall the scenario is telling a single story. Therefore combat and such other elements of most BOA scenarios are not present to any large degree. The scenario is reasonably long. But the ending could use a bit more polish. Though as with books not everyone will be pleased by the same ending. Play this scenario for a well-told story involving your group as its central characters. Rating iz [rating]GOOD[/rating]ReSPek........

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From Linthar on the CSR:

 

 

This is a tough scenario to score. On one hand it is has some of the best looking towns I've seen in a boa scenario. Its plot is good, and the end sequence with the dragon is quite intresting. The backstories of the various characters were nice with all the small details put into them.

 

On the other hand this scenario feels lacking somewhat in substance. This is little combat, and a lack of stuff not related to the storyline. The ending also felt unsastifying in more then one way. It felt the victories at the end were won by the npcs with the party having little role, and one large threat was left still unresolved. I'm avoiding being more specific so I don't spoil the plot which is the scenarios strong point.

 

I rate the scenario as [rating]GOOD[/rating]. It's good but the overall lack of gameplay prevents me from giving it anything higher.

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From miluk on the CSR:

 

Somewhat uneven but entertaining.

 

Very good graphics, which were well used and enriched the world. The height differences also look very nice. The treetops were especially impressive.

 

I sometimes liked very much the cutscenes and things going forward, especially in the Winding Cave. Sometimes (especially in the beginning) I had trouble following who did what and why.

 

I agree with Linthar that the ending was not exactly as good as it might have been. For example, too many "CAPITAL LETTER!!!" lines. (Though the dragon was annoying, it was also mildly amusing.) Though the story was uneven at points, it was mostly interesting.

 

I almost got tired of doing errands just to prove myself worthy.

 

A couple of small bugs (like if you enter from the wrong direction in Relias, you miss half of the cutscene), and some personalities had blank dialogues. There was not much in Ouranil, just a couple of buildings and personalities, though it was architecturally interesting(ly described). The cutscenes tended to look better towards the end.

 

Many interesting details, like the druid shrine in Relias.

 

The artifacts were mostly unimpressive after Za-Khazi Run but on the other hand, there wasn't too much fighting. (The other sunstone had negative value.)

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From Salmon on the CSR:

 

I liked this scenario for its stunning graphics and clever use of height. It prefers to direct your party in a linear path, but I was still able to do things out of sequence. I would have liked to see more use of conditional passage to block things that should happen after the explanation, rather than before.

 

The ending cutscene was a downer, but after we got it fixed up I understood exactly what happened. This is a real nice first scenario, and I look forward to more from Ephesos.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From Nasarius on the CSR

 

The town design is nice. The scripted sequences weren't bad, but they weren't much fun either.

 

The story is okay, but the dialogue (particularly the cutscene dialogue) is awful. Too short, too linear, and too easy for all the loot and XP present. And without an interactive ending, it's quite anticlimactic.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From Lazarus on the CSR:

 

A great looking scenario, rivaled only by EM in that department. The town design is awesome, and the same applies to the outdoors, which really benefit from the custom graphics.

 

The plot is fairly linear, and is overall well presented. But at some points I thought it could have been better. This has been brought up before, but it still bugs me, why is Brother Oakleaf yanking my chain all the time and making me run errands? For a while I thought he might turn out to be a villain, it seemed that he tried to slow down the party at every opportunity. Plus the scenario just comes to a screeching halt at the end, hopefully things will get tied up when Ephesos writes DoK2.

 

The strange part about my above complaint was that I almost didn't mind the errands, as it was an excuse to wander about and see the sights. I don't know what else to say, that sums it up.

Play it

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From Thralni on the CSR:

 

Design:

 

I mainly liked the design of this scenario. The tree-town was absolutely beautifull. The glowing flowers were very nice, and i liked how the height was used to simulate a tree. it looked very convincing. the outdoors was also quite nice, though I won't call it stunning.

 

Combat:

 

I liked the combat, for it was not to difficult. It shouldn't be too easy of course, but in general I don't like combat all that much, so there. the end-fight was somewhat interesting. Though I didn't like not being able to attack the dragon and receiving damage all the time, I really liked how Ephesos simulated the dragon flying over the party and attacking it. I thought it to be very convincing. I also liked the cutscene in which Brother Ephesos was rescued.

 

Plot:

 

Meh. That's how I viewed the plot. it wasn't very original, nor very dull. Somewhere in the middle, I guess, though the names of the orders were to be expected: "order of the flame."

 

Overall:

 

A enjoyable scenario. If you are not there to play, but to sightsee and get some inspiration for your own scenario, look at the capabilities of BoA, this is a perfect start.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From Nioca on the CSR:

 

As per usual, this scenario is graphically superb. The plot was good, though it seemed a little hackneyed at points. Some spots seemed rather odd, though it may be because Ephesos rushed the scenario. Oh, and I liked the final 'fight'.

 

[rating]GOOD[/rating]

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From Excalibur on SV

 

Druids of Krell

 

Combat - Best - Appropriately leveled and fun, especially the final battle.

 

Visual design - Best - Okay, so I didn't like some of the custom graphics, but everything else was superb.

 

Technical design - Best - Very nice cut scenes, and the battle with the black dragon was very cool. The artifacts in the scenario are also quite awesome.

 

Writing - Good - It was good, but not great

 

Story/Plot - Good - I thought it went down a bit funny, with having to find Brother (Oak?) in so many places, and the lizard army just suddenly leaving their fortress practically unarmed.

 

Enjoyability - Good - because of said things above.

 

Overall - [rating]GOOD[/rating]- Nice

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